Shipping vision for 2040

The Sustainable Shipping Initiative, a coalition of global companies and NGOs, has set out five key objectives for sustainable shipping, in a document entitled The Vision for 2040.

It wants shipping organisations to participate in its plan for action, which will launch in March. Participants will report to the SSI Steering Group, and the overall initiative will report publicly on a biannual basis.

Unilever chief supply chain officer, Pier-Luigi Sigismondi, said: “With shippingbeing an increasingly important part of supply chain, the Sustainable ShippingInitiative represents a unique opportunity to reduce environmental impact notonly for Unilever, but right across the industry.”

The five key objectives are:

* Communities: To become a more trusted and responsible partner in thecommunities in which the industry operates;

* Employment: To provide a safe, healthy, secure and rewarding workenvironment to the over two million people working in shipping;

* Energy and Environment: To diversify the industry’s energy mix and ensure greaterresource efficiency, make dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas intensity, and ensure responsible governance of the oceans;

* Governance: To promote greater transparency and accountability at corporate and industry levels;

* Innovation: To enable the financing and large scale uptake of technological and operational innovations, and a step-change in the industry’s performance on sustainability.

The vision sets out four areas which it believes offers the greatest potential to accelerate change:

1. Developing new finance mechanisms to speed new technologies and innovation;